November 2009 MMA News Archive - Page 2

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"My passion is in MMA," said Overeem, the Strikeforce heavyweight champion. "That's what I like to do. But now that I beat Peter Aerts (to get to) the Final 8, I feel like the title is within reach, so I'm going to get it." K-1 seems to like playing up the MMA vs. K-1 angle when promoting Overeem, and no matter how he does in the Grand Prix Final, K-1 is hoping to have Overeem fight in its sister MMA promotion, Dream, next year. Overeem says he wants to fight Fedor Emelianenko next year, either in Dream or Strikeforce.

Despite a stellar career record, former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber (22-3 MMA, 7-2 WEC) undoubtedly feels like he's got a score to settle with Mike Brown.
Two losses in less than a year will do that to you.
But if "The California Kid" is able to claim a victory over Raphael Assuncao (14-1 MMA, 2-0 WEC) at WEC 46 in January, Faber isn't hoping for another crack at Brown. Faber wants his title back.

Scratch one more title fight for the UFC.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has learned from sources close to the organization that a planned bout between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort will not take place on Feb. 6.
Silva's has bone chips removed from his right elbow in October, and the joint has reportedly proved slow to heal.
Sources close to the situation informed MMAjunkie.com that "The Spider" might not be ready to fight until April, though Silva's manager, Ed Soares, wasn't immediately available for comment.
Silva and Belfort were originally slated for UFC 108 on Jan. 2, but that date was also nixed due to the elbow surgery.

It’s not hard to see why Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal is widely touted as one of the sport’s fastest rising prospects with all of the early indications of a future champion. A freestyle wrestler of the highest caliber in his prime that has made the transition to the brutal world of mixed martial arts look easy, Lawal accomplished the unheard of in his first professional bout, stopping a veteran of over sixty fights riding a nine fight win streak with ease.
Since the first round beating Mo put on Travis Wiuff during Sengoku VI, Lawal has gone on to put together an unblemished record of 5-0 while rocking what is disputedy the game’s best ring entrance prior to every beatdown served up.

The expected Mark Coleman-Randy Couture fight scheduled for UFC 109 is now half-official. It was confirmed today that Coleman has signed his bout agreement for the contest according to Coleman's sponsor. Couture has verbally agreed to the fight already but no word on if he's signed the paperwork yet.

Earlier this month, M-1 Global exec Jerry Millen made waves by claiming Fedor Emelianenko would be willing to fight Brock Lesnar for free.
UFC president Dana White recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) that he's prepared to call Millen's bluff.
"They'll do the fight for free?" White asked. "That's [expletive] weird because I offered them millions of dollars to take the fight and he didn't take it. Now [Emelianenko] wants to fight for free? When and where? I'd love him to fight for free.
"I'll make that [expletive] fight right now for free. Let's do it."

Although the event hasn't been announced and the exact date isn't official, the latest word on UFC's return to Newark, NJ in March '10 is that it will be March 27, not earlier dates as previously thought. This means the event likely will be UFC 112 instead of UFC 111, and is expected to be headlined by Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy for the UFC Welterweight Championship.

Wanderlei Silva has explained to Fighters Only how he came to be matched with Mike Bisping instead of Yoshihiro Akiyama for UFC Australia. The Brazilian legend agreed to the match yesterday and says as far as he knows, Bisping has also assented.
“Joe Silva called me yesterday and he said he is thinking maybe he will change my opponent to Bisping. I think this is great as he won his last fight [with Denis Kang] very well and it is a good match for both of us,” he explained. “Akiyama is a great fighter but he has not fought much over here [in the USA] and is not so well known, Bisping has a very big name over here, so I am thinking it’s a very good match for me.”
But Silva literally cannot believe that there are people on MMA forums suggesting he ducked Michael Bisping at UFC 105, having surgery on his scar tissue to avoid meeting him in Manchester. Asked by our man in Las Vegas, Gary Alexander, if there was any truth to such talk, , Silva looked incredulous, then burst out laughing.
“I fought CroCop two times, I fought Mark Hunt, Rampage Jackson three times, Dan Henderson twice, Chuck Liddell… I am going to be afraid of Michael Bisping? Stop the jokes!” he cried, bursting into laughter.

Coming off of yet another exciting performance, defeating Ultimate Fighter winner James Wilks, Ultimate Fighter alumnus Matt "The Immortal" Brown is looking to take a little down time for the holidays and then would like to return to fight a legend in his next fight.
The Ohio native and recent transplant to Seattle, Wash., is heading home to spend time with the family first, and then head back to camp for his next fight.

Shine Fights continues to spend like UFC might to sign fighters, their latest pickup is Todd Moore, who gets a 3-fight exclusive deal. The WEC & DREAM veteran even knows who he wants to fight first: Former boxing champion Ricardo Mayorga, who signed with the promotion in September.

... they’re attacking my main weaknesses. Greg is big on getting his athletes to close up their gaps. My jiu-jitsu has to be my weakest department so he's trying to close that hole up. I've been doing a lot of wrestling and a lot of jiu-jitsu.... It's amazing. It's just a total reality check on how not good I actually am. You know what I mean? I go from a school (in New York) where I beat up everyone, and now I get tapped out and guys try to kick my head off. It's an everyday thing. It's just a big reality check in how much work I actually have to do still.... One thing about Greg Jackson is that he sees who I am and he respects who I am and he allows me to be who I am. He tells me every day, 'I love your creativity, Jon. I want more of that. What is that called? Do more of that funky thing.' He loves it. The only thing he forces is for me to be able to push the pace. Instead of one flying knee, he wants six flying knees per round. Instead of a few jabs, he wants 20 jabs per round. He wants combinations, he wants punches in bunches. He wants (me) to use the base of (conventional) fighting to set up the funkiness. He embraces it, he just wants me to take pride in this new set of lungs that I have."
Full interview
Worth a read!

"The UFC asked me to fight the catchweight fights to help Silva and Belfort make the drop down to 185 pounds. But now I’ve lost my ranking at 185 and 205. It’s crazy — I can headline a card and not be top-10 ranked. I took the Belfort fight because Dana called and asked me, even though I wasn’t quite where I needed to be physically or mentally. Now, I’m not making excuses, that’s just the nature of the fight game. But now I’m taking some time off and probably won’t fight again until April or May. I need to rest and relax and recover a little bit and I also hate prepping for a fight in the wintertime. Cincinnati can get pretty cold and I hate running and working out when the temperature is always zero.”

While 205 pounds may very well be the weight class the flamboyant and always entertaining Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal chooses to call home in the future, FiveOuncesofPain.com has recently learned that his promotional debut in Strikeforce will in fact take place in the heavyweight division.
While nothing has been made official regarding the match-up as of this time, Lawal recently confirmed to 5 Oz. that both he and Mike Whitehead have verbally agreed to the proposed clash

"[Brett] took about a week off but that's it. We are already making preparations for his next fight and have started his training program. Brett didn't suffer any injuries during that fight so there is no reason not to get him right back in the cage training again. That was another frustrating thing about the fight in that Brett suffered no damage. I remember being in the locker room and telling him that I should hit him with something so it looks like he was actually in a fight. If we were able to round up 10,000 more people on short notice Brett would be able to have a rematch today. His puppy does more damage to him than he sustained in the fight ... Whoever Strikeforce decides to give us whether it is Fabricio Werdum, (Antonio) Silva or (Alistair) Overeem we will take it."
Team Bison's Mike Reilly, head trainer for Strikeforce heavyweight Brett Rogers, is ready to send his star pupil right back into battle following his TKO loss to WAMMA champ Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of "Saturday Night Fights" back on Nov. 7 in Hoffman Estates, IL.

Canadian Georges St-Pierre (19-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC) is already considered among the world's current top pound-for-pound fighters, but that's not enough for the UFC's welterweight champ.
"When I retire, I want to be known as the best fighter in the history of the sport of MMA, pound-for-pound, of all time," St-Pierre recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).
And while many fans hope to see St-Pierre take on current middleweight champ Anderson Silva at some point in his career, "GSP" believes he doesn't necessarily need to make the jump to middleweight to secure his spot in history.
"To reach that goal (of being the best fighter in history), of course I'm going to have to beat some of the best guys in the sport," St-Pierre said. "Of course Silva is one of them. B.J. Penn was one of them. But this fight (with Silva) is not written in stone. One of us can lose a fight, and if one of us loses a fight, the interest of the fight will diminish considerably."

With an undefeated record and a recent upset victory over UFC veteran Jorge Gurgel at "Strikeforce Challengers IV: Evangelista vs. Gurgel," Strikeforce contender Billy Evangelista (10-0) is quickly climbing the ranks of the promotion's lightweight division.
And after earning a hard-fought win over a "name" opponent, Evangelista recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) that he plans on challenging soon for the organization's lightweight strap.
"I feel that Jorge Gurgel was a big catch for me, and it definitely gave me a big confidence boost winning that fight," Evangelista said. "I would love to take a shot at the title."

Hard work pays off for Dan Hardy in an age where hundreds of fighters are under contract with the ufc, dan hardy’s short road to a title shot is somewhat of an anomaly.

In an age where hundreds of fighters are under contract with the UFC, Dan Hardy’s short road to a title shot is somewhat of an anomaly.
Maybe not for heavyweight, but for welterweight, one of the most talent-laden divisions in the sport, four fights to a title shot is lickety split. Just ask Lyoto Machida.
Then again, it’s also a testament to the dominance of champion Georges St-Pierre. The French-Canadian has pretty much cleaned out the division, and many thought to be rightful heirs to contendership have stumbled upon each other.

“I’ve never wanted a rematch this bad before and I’m willing to go through whoever they put in front of me in order to get it.” said Mir “I hope [Brock] recovers and is able to defend his title because I want to be the one to take it from him, and next time if I manage to grab a hold of a limb I won’t let go until I feel something break, to maim him would be satisfying.”

Shine Fights continued it's pre-holiday signing spree today, inking Jesse Forbes to a 3-fight deal. Forbes appeared on season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter, losing early to Noah Inhofer but coming back when Inhofer famously left the show after getting a letter from home. He lost again but returned for the Finale, where he lost to Matt Hamill. But he's 7-1 in his last 8 fights with 4 wins in a row.